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Back At the End: About Your Friends…

Coming to you a little late today because–well, I just woke up from a nap. I had a busy day driving around getting some food stuffs and visiting some spots. Such as–

Yeah, that’s a skate park near me and I’m considering hitting it early tomorrow with the GoPro because why not, right? Also, in a couple of weeks a meeting of Chicks in Bowls is gonna show up there and intend to put in an appearance after a four hour morning skating clinic put on by Satan’s Little Helper. Yeah, you heard that right.

Wait for video: it’s coming.

Now it’s Writing Time and we’re back at Memory’s End and Deanna is gonna talk a bit to Annie about making friends with spirits:

(The following excerpts from The Foundation Chronicles, Book Three: C For Continuing, copyright 2016, 2017, 2018 by Cassidy Frazee)

There was something in Deanna’s tone that instantly put Annie on the defensive. “Why is that?”

The seer crossed her legs as she moved to a seated position next to her student. “We don’t know anything about her other than she’s at least thousands of years old—”

“She told Kerry and I she was one of the Seven Sisters.”

“Really.” Deanna’s eyes widened. “I happen to know that’s something she’s never admitted to Adric: as far as I know, she’s never admitted that to anyone who’s studied her. Yet the third time she speaks with you, she tells you this.” The seer leaned closer and spoke in a near whisper, as though she didn’t want to wake Kerry. “Did you ever wonder why she told you?”

Annie thought for a few seconds before shaking her head. “No. I never considered it beyond—”

“Her being nice to you?”

“Yes.”

Back during the actual Walk In the Astral Realm, Ol’ Phee confirmed that, yes, she was one of the famous Seven Sisters, seven powerful spirits found in various parts of the world. Now we learn that Adric–the school’s expert and instructor on all things spirit–has never been told that fact, nor would it seem has anyone else. As far as Deanna knows, this is the first time it’s been confirmed, which makes it an important piece of information.

And yet, Phee dropped that tidbit like she was talking about the weather. To a couple of kids.

This is where you get into wondering why an old spirit would do such a thing. And Deanna has an answer for that–and more…

Deanna shrugged. “It’s easy enough to do when she acts like she’s being nice—but is she? I think Kerry stated once that we can never really know why The Phoenix does the things she does because she’s… alien. She’s not human: not even closely related to us. She’s a different form of intelligent live that happens to share the planet with us.”

“I know that, but…” Annie knew she shouldn’t consider The Phoenix anything even close to a friend, but at the same time their conversation has been polite—up until the end. “Look at what she did for Kerry last year—for me as well. She unlocked his E and A so he wouldn’t go insane. She didn’t have to do that.”

“I agree. However—” Deanna leaned closer. “Did you ever consider the possibility that she allowed Kerry to get to the point where he almost went insane because she wanted to see what he, and those around him, would react?”

Annie grew visibly shocked. “No, I hadn’t.”

“Look at what she did. Kerry told us that during his E and A she turned him into a girl because she knew his mother always wanted one, so she gave him a way to reconcile with his mother. The only way she could have known that was to go through this thoughts.” Deanna paused for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. “If she knew that about his family life, it’s quite likely she was aware of his Bigender Gift, which means she’d know at some point during school he would begin having dreams as he approached recognizing his gift existed.

“While The Phoenix can say that she found Kerry’s transition interesting, keep in mind Kaity Caspersen and Lucyna Gorczynski were students then they each had their involuntary transitions. The only difference between them and Kerry is that we knew Kerry’s was coming and he didn’t hide it from us.” She gave Annie that warning look again. “She’s seen it happen before, so it’s likely she knew what Kerry was going through and she probably knew that keeping his E and A locked up would prevent him from reaching the last moment in his dreams where he accepted the gift.” She sat up and sighed. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say The Phoenix wanted to see how far Kerry could hold out before the mental strain became too great, as well as seeing what steps we’d take to help him acknowledge what was happening to him.”

For the first time the seeds of distrust are being sown and Deanna is making certain that Annie knows that The Phoenix is something so different from us that we don’t really know her. Sure, she’s curious about Kerry’s change, but she saw the change happen in two other students–both mentioned in the last novel–with the main difference being no one else knew what had happened to them. No one human, that is.

I should finished this up tomorrow, which means you may get a double post. Or not.